San Francisco Giants left fielder Melky Cabrera smiles while up to bat during their game against the Diamondbacks in San Francisco, Calif. Wednesday, May 30, 2012. Cabrera tied a Giants record for most hits in a month with 51.

Melky Cabrera's statistics should have written him a ticket to the All-Star Game in Kansas City no matter where he played. But if he played in Colorado or Pittsburgh this season, the same numbers might have kept him out of the National League's starting lineup.

The Giants' fans, prodded by a marketing department in full stage-parent mode, secured the spot for him with a deluge of affection.

They voted Cabrera into first place in the outfield, almost a million ballots ahead of Carlos Beltran, who had slightly better credentials and the support of the famously ardent St. Louis partisans. The downside of the Giants' intensive and somewhat indiscriminate campaign for All-Star votes already has been documented here.

The embrace of Cabrera, both at the ballot box and in the costume-ball craziness that defines the Giants' park, could edit an unflattering portion of the franchise's scouting report. In the 12 years since the yard at China Basin opened, how many times have we heard that free agency's best hitters want nothing to do with the place?

Beltran spent a brief period in a Giants uniform last year and then left for only a two-year deal with the Cardinals, barely bothering to entertain an offer from his most recent employer. Perhaps he left because the rest of the offense couldn't support him properly, or because he simply didn't care for being on the West Coast.

The Giants' park did not suit him very well. It eats flyballs alive, and the right-field job, which Beltran thought he could handle, requires a touch of the magician. He didn't have it, and that became clear very early.

Cabrera's success, following another revival last season in Kansas City, raises new possibilities. The reaction to it raises even bigger ones. He has shown that a hitter without a tendency to get under pitches can thrive in the Giants' park. The fans have shown him the type of love that star players in New York, Boston and Philadelphia take for granted. It could make the difference between his staying or looking for another home as a free agent after the season.

Even if the passion doesn't persuade Cabrera, it might carve away some of the concerns that everyday players have about coming to San Francisco. It won't outweigh the first five considerations, most of which carry dollar signs - but many players do care about whether they will enjoy themselves in a city.

The Bay Area, with its high housing costs and nasty commutes, places some big hurdles in front of prospective Giants. At the same time, compared with other cities with similar obstacles, San Francisco tends to show its passion in good baseball times and turn relatively benign, if not apathetic, when the team falters.

Barry Zito might not agree. He has been treated harshly here, but he can only imagine the misery of floundering in New York or Boston while cashing huge paychecks. He has turned around the anger somewhat, mostly by behaving with dignity when he didn't make the postseason roster in 2010. He remained a devoted teammate, and the Giants' fans recognized that.

Would Zito's enthusiasm for his team's triumph have gone unnoticed elsewhere? No one can guess, but we do know the numbers from this year's All-Star balloting, which floated every Giant from Buster Posey to Aubrey Huff into extraordinary realms.

We also know that Don Mattingly just called the park's atmosphere "Boston-ish" and that no other city can quite match the phenomenon of Panda hats, false beards, giraffes, rubber chickens, "Let Timmy Smoke" T-shirts and the Melkmen characters who borrowed their inspiration from Cabrera's Yankee-era nickname.

No doubt, other teams will model future All-Star campaigns after the Giants' push this summer. As more than one astute reader has noted, the marketing department surely used the occasion to embed more registered users on its website and generally create a stronger link to its customers. The chickens, Panda hats, beards and all their progeny (minus the pro-reefer T-shirts) have strong commercial value for the franchise.

Still, the adoration can't be manufactured, and when Cabrera looks into the stands and sees adults dressed to honor him, he has to wonder whether any other park can ever feel like home. Going into this season, some critics questioned whether his 2011 improvement would vanish in a regression to the mean. That still could happen, and the lavish affection could fade. The relative blizzard of All-Star votes for the Giants almost certainly will recede as other teams catch up.

But the fan lunacy doesn't show any sign of regressing to a mean. Acute fervor has become the norm.